[2] Dean Farrar, Address on General Grant, Westminster Abbey, 1885.

         General Summary of English Constitutional History[1]

[1] This Summary is inserted for the benefit of those who desire a compact, connected view of the development of the English Constitution, such as may be conveniently used either for reference, for a general review of the subject, or for purposes of special study. —­D.H.M.

For authorities, see Stubbs (449-1485); Hallam (1485-1760); May (1760- 1870); Amos (1870-1880); see also Hansard and Cobbett’s “Parliamentary History,” the works of Freeman, Taswell-Langmead (the best one-volume Constitutional History), Feilden’s Manual, and A. L. Lowell’s “The Government of England,” 2 vols., in the Classified List of Books beginning on page xxxvi.

The references inserted in parentheses are to sections in the body of the history.

1.  Origin and Primitive Government of the English People.

The main body of the English people did not originate in Britain, but in Northwestern Germany.  The Jutes, Saxons, and Angles were independent, kindred tribes living on the banks of the Elbe and its vicinity.

They had no written laws, but obeyed time-honored customs which had all the force of laws.  All matters of public importance were decided by each tribe at meetings held in the open air.  There every freeman had an equal voice in the decision.  There the people chose their rulers and military leaders; they discussed questions of peace and war; finally, acting as a high court of justice, they tried criminals and settled disputes about property.

In these rude methods we see the beginning of the English Constitution.  Its growth has been the slow work of centuries, but the great principles underlying it have never changed.  At every stage of their progress the English people and their descendants throughout the globe have claimed the right of self-government; and, if we except the period of the Norman Conquest, whenever that right has been persistently withheld or denied, the people have risen in arms and regained it.

2.  Conquest of Britain; Origin and Power of the King.

After the Romans abandoned Britain the English invaded the island 449(?), and in the course of a hundred and fifty years conquered it and established a number of rival settlements.  The native Britons were, in great part, killed off or driven to take refuge in Wales and Cornwall.

The conquerors brought to their new home the methods of government and modes of life to which they had been accustomed in Germany.  A cluster of towns—­that is, a small number of enclosed habitations (S103)—­ formed a hundred (a district having either a hundred families or able to furnish a hundred warriors); a cluster of hundreds formed a shire or county.  Each of these divisions had its public meeting, composed of all its freemen or their representatives, for the